ED summons to Isaac: HC orders status quo till April 5

The Kerala High Court has ordered that the status quo as of April 1 be maintained till April 5 with respect to the proceedings on the new summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) directing former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac to appear before it on April 2 in a case relating to the alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations in the floating of masala bond by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).

Justice T.R. Ravi, while passing the interim order on Monday on a petition filed by Dr. Isaac challenging the ED summons, observed that the status quo was ordered only to ensure that nothing would happen during the process of hearing.

Dr. Isaac submitted that the summons had asked him to appear to give oral evidence regarding the utilisation of funds received under masala bond during his tenure as chairman of the executive committee and vicechairman of the general committee of KIIFB. The only intention behind the latest summons was to obstruct his election campaigning as Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency.

‘Why not after polls?’

When the petition came up for hearing, the court asked whether any prejudice would be caused to the ED if the inquiry was postponed till after the elections. A.R.L. Sundaresan, Additional Solicitor General of India appearing for the ED, submitted that the ED would be prejudiced as the agency had been calling him repeatedly. The court said “once the elections are over, neither side has reasons to say that all these are election stunts.”

Mr. Sundaresan then submitted that if Dr. Isaac appeared before the ED, the inquiry would be over soon. In fact, the elections could not be a reason for keeping the inquiry in abeyance. The contention of Dr. Isaac could be appreciated if the ED had issued summons after the elections were notified. However, he had been repeatedly avoiding the summons. He added that the ED would file objections to the petition by Dr. Isaac.

The court noted that it was the fifth summons issued. The ED had to make corrections in the summons on three occasions. The number of questions in the summons had to be reduced from 13 to 1.